The present invention relates to the new and distinct plant cultivar known as Monarda didyma ‘Lilac Lollipop’, and hereinafter also referred to solely as the cultivar ‘Lilac Lollipop’ or the “new plant”. The new plant was the subject of an open pollination in summer of 2010 at a wholesale perennial nursery in Zeeland, Mich., USA. Seed was harvested by the inventor in the fall of 2010. The female or seed parent is the unreleased proprietary hybrid Monarda dydima H9-06-01 (not patented) and the male or pollen parent is unknown but may have been any one of several plants and seedlings in the isolation breeding area since the pollen is efficiently spread long distances by insects. The plant was initially subjected to evaluation in the summer of 2012 in trial plots of the same nursery in Zeeland, Mich. Final evaluation was performed in the summer of 2013 wherein a single selected seedling was separated for eventual introduction and assigned the breeder identification number H10-26-3.
Monarda ‘Lilac Lollipop’ has been asexually propagated by stem cuttings at the same nursery in the greenhouses in Zeeland, Mich., and the subsequent asexually propagated plants found to be stable and identical to the original selection.